The present invention relates to an apparatus for manipulating the position and orientation of a workpiece for welding. More particularly, this invention relates to a welder positioner which allows a user to raise, lower, move side to side and rotate a large piece of metal to a desired location and orientation to assist in the construction and manufacturing of any number of large metal devices, mechanisms or apparatus.
In the manufacturing process, workers are often times required to move large metal pieces which are to be welded together to fabricate the item being manufactured. As a result, numerous devices have been developed for manipulating the location and orientation of these workpieces to assist in the manufacturing process. One such device, and the simplest, is merely a table or platform which can be raised and lowered, thus raising and lowering the workpiece resting on the table. Many of these devices incorporate hydraulic cylinders because of their ability to easily move heavy objects.
Numerous modifications have been made to the simple raising and lowering table design to provide the user with more freedom in changing the orientation of the workpiece. Some of the changes include making the tabletop surface rotatable, thus permitting the user to not only raise and lower the workpiece but to rotate the workpiece in a horizontal manner. Another modification to the raising and lowering platform design is to provide a way for the tabletop to move from a generally horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation, thus providing the user with even more freedom to change the orientation of the workpiece. While these devices certainly present an advance in the art over simply laying items to be joined side by side on the ground, these devices provide only a limited number of movements and hence a limited number of positions in which to orient the workpiece or workpieces.
Therefore, there is a need for a workpiece positioner which can easily and efficiently move large workpieces through a virtually infinite number of locations and orientations, including up, down, left, right, to and fro and clockwise and counterclockwise rotation in any location. The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art and fills these and other needs.